#Antoine Hamel

[aedesluminis]

On Anne-Marie Robinot, Saint-Just's mother

What follows is a personal translation I did of an excerpt taken from the historian Stefania Di Pasquale's book Storie di Madri (A History of mothers) which includes a chapter on Louis-Antoine's mother. The notes at the end are included in the original work.

Marie-Anne Robinot was born in Décize on the 16th of January 1734, the daughter of Jeanne Philiberte Houdry (1712-1745) and Léonard Robinot (1701-1776), king’s counsel, royal notary and procurator in the bourg of Décize.

There are no contemporary pictures of this woman, but that doesn’t mean she was less important than others; the lack of any representation is probably due to the centuries that have passed since her death and to the destruction of personal belongings which occurred right after Robespierre’s fall and also, in particular, during the Restoration of the old European monarchies starting with the Congress of Vienna of 1815.

We don’t know much about her early years, except that she grew up among the Décize haute bourgeoisie of the 18th century and that she received a good education.

The French historian Ernest Hamel, who had met Saint-Just’s nephews for his grandfather was an intimate of the latter, wrote the following in his biography Histoire de Saint-Just:  «Madame de Saint-Just was a charming and charitable woman, who outlived her son by a few years, she was sad by nature; she had loved with excessive love this predestined son, who until the last day returned her motherly tenderness with filial adoration. » (1)

Marie-Anne was a very religious woman, attached to her family, but compared to her contemporaries, who submitted to paternal will on certain matters such as those concerning arranged marriages, and, although she loved and respected her father, she believed it was unfair that parents could decide the future of their children, especially when they were already sentimentally attached to another person. This is what eventually happened to Marie-Anne.

Mademoiselle Robinot fell in love with Monsieur Louis-Jean Saint-Just de Richebourg, knight of the royal and military order of Saint-Louis, marshal of the gendarme company under the title of Berry, son of Marie-Françoise Adam and Charles de Saint-Just.

The age gap between the two was of twenty years: he, a mature man, and she, a young thirty years old woman still unmarried.

Marie-Anne had already the occasion to show her obstinacy just a couple of months after meeting captain Saint-Just.

Unfortunately their union would have been opposed by her father, who didn’t approve their relationship since he considered Louis-Jean as a simple peasant son of humble origins. Monsieur Robinot didn’t consider his future brother-in-law equal to his rank. But perhaps was it just an excuse? At the time the Robinot family was composed of men only and a female figure, who knew how to handle domestic servants, was much needed. The young woman wasn’t evidently of the same opinion and, on the suggestion of some notary friends of her, she resorted to the only means available at the time to counter paternal authority: les sommations respectueuses.

During the Ancien Régime the law required the father’s consent to celebrate a marriage, but in case it was denied, people over 25 could counter the refusal through a process called sommations respectueuses. To accomplish that, one had to rely on a notary and ask the family members three times for the written consent. After that, if the request kept being denied, the person could still proceed with the marriage.

Determined to fulfill her dream, Marie-Anne took courage against her paternal authority and on 21 March 1766 she appeared before her father together with notary Grenot and two other witnesses both belonging to the nobility.

Outraged by such audacity, Léonard Robinot pretended to be absent. The same occurred on 22 March. The following day, the 23, the day of the last visit, Robinot left the house defeated, without uttering a single word. Happy and contented, the next day Marie-Anne signed the marriage contract and the ceremony was set for 30 May 1766.

The two married in Verneuil with a quick ritual, celebrated by the uncle of the spouse, Antoine Robinot, and among the wedding witnesses there were a carpenter, a merchant and a cabaret comedian (two of them couldn’t either read or write).

In a rage, the rest of the Robinot Family didn’t even want to go out of their house to see the spouses, especially the disobedient daughter. Surely the intimacy of the ceremony was thought necessary to avoid their reprimand.

Marie-Anne got pregnant a few months after the marriage and on the 25th of August 1767 a child was born, who one day would have made history, who would have fought and died for the freedom of his country.

The chosen name was that of Louis-Antoine, Louis like his father and Antoine like his uncle and godfather, the abbot Antoine Robinot.

The little Saint-Just was baptized the same day he was born in the church of Saint-Aré (Décize) and, according to the customs of the time, he was placed in the care of a wet nurse in Verneuil who lived in a house next to his uncle's. A few years later his sisters were born as well: Loise-Marie-Antoine in 1768 and Marie-Françoise-Victoire in 1769.

In 1771, however, Antoine Robinot died, the Saint-Just family was forced to take their son back and move to Nampcel, to the house which once belonged to Charles de Saint-Just (1676-1766), Anoine’s paternal grandfather. Marie Madeleine, sister of Louis-Jean, was there to welcome them.

They lived together peacefully for some time, then the family moved again to Marie-Anne’s paternal household in Décize.

According to the French historian Bernard Vinot, Léonard Robinot was a good grandfather, who doted on little Louis-Antoine. However the joy of that peaceful life was short-lived.

In 1776 Robinot died and the Saint-Just family moved one last time to the rural village of Blérancourt. It was a graceful and tranquil place. There, thanks to his military merits, Louis-Jean obtained consideration and privileges, usually reserved to the lower nobility.

Léonhard’s inheritance was split among his children and on 18 July 1776 the heirs sold the house in Décize to Claude Leblanc: that was the last time one could find the Saint-Just spouses’ signature in the town of Décize.

And so Louis-Antoine left in July 1776 the place where he had spent the first four years of his life forever, but he would have never forgotten the mountains and the river Loire, from where the fairies and myths of his work Organt would have come out. (2)

[...] Unfortunately a large part of the familial correspondence [between Saint-Just and his family] was destroyed both during the persecutions the family endured after the death by decapitation of Louis-Antoine and after the dreadful Restauration which started with the Congress of Vienna of 1815.

[...] Other than the pain caused by the death of her beloved son, Madame Saint-Just had to endure the humiliations of the Directory political police.

A mother who until the very end kept like relics those few belongings of her son, saving them from the thermidorian fury; today one can see those mementos in a display case placed in Saint-Just’s house, now a museum, in Blérancourt. In these cases it’s possible to admire a book of the young revolutionary man still with the violet he had put inside as a bookmark; a bronze plaque with an angel on it (once it used to be in Louis-Antoine’s bedroom) and a quill. That was all the poor mother could save, since even the young man’s clothes had been sold to the authorities.

Marie-Anne didn’t even have a grave to mourn her son, buried without clothes to prevent someone from reclaiming those tortured bodies. For Louis-Antoine’s remains were thrown into a mass grave in the Parisian Errancis cemetery, close to Parc Monceau.

Today this cemetery doesn’t exist anymore and the 119 human remains were moved to the catacombs in Paris.

From a missive by Madame Saint-Just sent to the prefecture of the Aisne Department, we know that the authorities still refused to give her back some of the belongings, despite the fact that fifteen years had passed since her son’s death:

To the Prefect of the Department of Aisne, member of the Legion of Honour. Marie-Anne Robinot, widow of the defunct Monsieur Louis de Saint-Just, former cavalry captain in Blérancourt and currently residing there, has the honour to notify you that, following the event of 9 Thermidor Year II, a commission named through a decree of the District of Chauny came to my house to seize all property titles belonging to me and my children, because of the sentence pronounced against Louis de Saint-Just, my son, representative in the National Convention; and that, as a consequence of that event another decree was released that allowed the return of the belongings to the parents of the convicts; I am in need of the titles of which I am concerned and which are currently deposited in the Archives of the prefecture of Aisne, I want to have the honour to ask the Prefect to be so kind to order the collection and delivery of my belongings through you; by doing so you shall have my most sincere gratitude and respect, Monsieur le Préfet, your humble and obedient servant. Widow Saint-Just. Presented on 18 February 1809.

[...] After the death of her son and with age advancing, on 5 June 1807, Marie-Anne decided to make a will, leaving everything to her two daughters:

To Louise, I leave a house, with a kitchen with a small cellar, an attic, a tool shed, gardens for 21 hectares with fruit trees, everything located in Blérancourt in Rue de la Chouette. To Victoire, a house with two rooms, a cellar, a hallway, an attic and office rooms, everything in Blérancourt in Rue de la Chouette. (3)

Madame Saint-Just died of a cholera epidemic four years after writing this small testament on 11 February 1811 in her house in Blérancourt, leaving the void and mourning of her daughters and nephews.

(1) Ernest Hamel, Histoire de Saint-Just, Paris, Poulet-Mallasis et de Braise, 1859, p. 26.

(2) In May 1789 in Paris L’Organt was published, it’s a poem divided into twenty chants in which Saint-Just criticized the absolute monarchy and clerical hierarchies.

(3) Claire Cioti, Saint-Just, cit.

[troybeecham]

The Church remembers Père Jacques Hamel, Priest and Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

Jacques Hamel (30 November 1930 – 26 July 2016 A.D.) was a French Catholic priest in the parish of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray. On 26 July 2016, Hamel was murdered during the 2016 Normandy church attack by two Muslim men pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant while he celebrated Mass in his church. During the attack, Hamel said "Satan, go!" when confronted by his killers.

Hamel was born on 30 November 1930 in Darnétal, France. At the age of six he became a choirboy in St. Paul's Church in Rouen and at 14 he entered the minor seminary. He served in the military for 18 months in Algeria. He did not wish to be an officer as he did not want to issue orders to other men to kill.

Hamel was ordained as a priest on 30 June 1958. He served as a vicar at the St. Antoine church in Le Petit-Quevilly from 1958, a vicar at the Notre-Dame de Lourdes church in Sotteville-lès-Rouen from 1967, a parish priest in Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf from 1975, and a parish priest in Cléon from 1988. He joined the church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in 2000.

He officially retired at the age of 75, but was allowed to keep serving in the parish. As a result, he assumed his role as the parish's assistant priest from 2005 to his death.

With local imam Mohammed Karabila, the president of Normandy's regional council of Muslims, Hamel worked since early 2015 on an interfaith committee. After Hamel's death, Karabila described him as his friend with whom he had discussed religion and as also someone who gave his life for others.

The circumstances of his death have led him to be called a martyr by Christians, including Pope Francis, non-Christians, and the press. Calls to make him a saint started soon after his death. The canonization cause was officially opened at diocesan level in April 2017, after Pope Francis had waived the otherwise mandatory five-year waiting period for the opening of such causes.

Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Jacques triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

Philippe Le Bas — two passports from the year 1792 have been conserved, the first one stating ”height of five pieds five pouces (176 cm), brown (châtain) hair and eyebrows, gray-blue eyes, short and a bit snub nose, small mouth, round chin, big forehead, ovale face,” the other ”height of five pieds five pouces, brown hair and eyebrows, gray eyes, enlarged nose, middle sized mouth, long chin, ovale face, high forehead.” Cited in Le conventionnel Le Bas: d'après des documents inédits et les mémoires de sa veuve (1901) by Stéfane-Pol, page 26-27.

Élisabeth Le Bas — in Histoire de Robespierre et du coup d’état du 9 thermidor (1865) the historian Ernest Hamel describes Élisabeth in 1794 as ”one of the most charming blondes one could see.” Hamel is confirmed to have met Élisabeth’s son Philippe, but it is less clear if he also met Élisabeth herself. She had dark eyes according to Alphonse Esquiros, who on the other hand is confirmed to have met Élisabeth in her old age.

Lazare Carnot — According to Mémoires de Larevellière-Lépeaux: membre du Directoire executif de la République Française et de l'Institut national (1895) ”Carnot is of a height above mediocre. He’s not all that large, but his limbs are and indicate a strong frame; his face, quite well shaped, is slightly marked with smallpoxes. He has a big nose, small water-colored eyes; his hair is blond, thinning, and his forehead is bald; his complexion, a bland white one, does not offer any ruddy shade when he is calm. This pale color, combined with a dry and cunning look, gives him a false and cruel appearance, which repels at first and banishes confidence.”

Georges Couthon — Several contemporaries agree that Couthon looked cute. Pierre Paganel claimed in that he possessed ”a gentle look, a laughing mouth, a countenance which solicited tender affections and promised kindness. His eyes caressed you; his silence attracted you; each of his features expressed a kind feeling and invited you to love him. […] If you imagine this head which seemed to have been composed with a singular predilection, sadly leaning over a body half consumed by premature paralysis; if you consider that his look, marked with habitual pain, in some way accused Providence of having taken away his youth, by taking away the means to spend it happily, you have a fair idea of ​​the keen interest that Couthon inspired in every sensitive man who saw him for the first time.” Barante, an enemy of Couthon, said that his face was ”gentle and pleasant,” his complexion ”dull,” features ”fine and firm,” his look ”gentle and passionate,” and his voice ”persuasive and emotional.” (cited in Georges Couthon (1983) by Albert Soboul). Maurice Gaillard, who met Couthon in May 1794, described his face as ”truly angelic” in a note written to Fouché somewhere during his time as Minister of Police, and in Souvernirs d’un sexagénarie (1833), Antoine Vincent Arnault called him ”the sweet Couthon,” even while describing his execution. In a letter dated September 29 1791 Couthon writes that he’s able to walk to the Legislative Assembly on foot. A year later, September 1792, he was however unable to use his legs and had to be carried, according to the testimony of Jacques-Antoine Dulaure (1794). When exactly Couthon got himself a wheelchair to get around appears to be unknown.

Hérault de Séchelles — A passport dated October 28 1793 documents the following: ”height of 5 pieds 8 pouces (184 cm), brown hair and eyebrows, high forehead, medium sized nose, brown eyes, small mouth” (cited in Un épicurien sous la Terreur; Hérault de Séchelles (1759-1794); d'après des documents inédits (1907) by Emile Dard). In Mémoires sur les règnes de Louis XV et Louis XVI et sur la revolution (1886) Jean-Nicolas Dufort de Cheverny describes Hérault in early 1792 as ”big, well formed, with the most beautiful face possible,” and specifies in a footnote that Hérault ”was one of the most beautiful men in France.” Madame Roland too mentions that Hérault was good looking in her memoirs, noting that ”all these pretty boys seem to me to be poor patriots.” Hérault’s lover Suzanne Giroux de Morency wrote in Illyrine, ou l'écueil de l'inexpérience (1800) that Hérault was ”a beautiful man” and described his eyes as ”big” and ”superb.”

Pierre Gaspard Chaumette — a passport from 1784 states the following: ”height of five pieds, blond hair and eyebrows, blue eyes, a small hole under the left eye, somewhat large nose.” Cited in Mémoires de Chaumette sur la Révolution du 10 août 1792 (1893). According to Pierre Paganel, ”Chaumette was small, his waist thick and squat, his face broad and flat; he looked humble, his eyes were shy and delicate, and his countenance, if I may put it that way, was tearful. He possessed to the supreme degree the silent game of hypocrisy. Through modest and dreamy language one perceived a very resolute character. Long black [sic!] hair, coarse clothing, a more than slovenly outfit, hid a deep ambition from being seen.”

Paul Barras — According to Mémoires de Larevellière-Lépeaux: membre du Directoire executif de la République Française et de l'Institut national (1895) ”He was tall, strong, vigorous and very well built. He had quite handsome features, and was overall a very handsome man; but he looked harsh, his countenance was gloomy, his look sinister; serenity rarely appeared on his face. When he smiled, his smile, gracious in itself, resembled those rays of sunlight escaping through dark clouds which soon intercept them. He had a bad tone in society, and lacked distinction. He had neither that which comes from a noble soul and an elevated spirit, nor that which a careful education and association with good company gives. With a fine figure and a masculine face, he had no external dignity, and always retained something of that common and bold air that bad society gives.”

Sophie Momoro — Jean-Baptiste Laboureau, who met Sophie while they were both imprisoned in the Prison de Port-libre, wrote in his diary on March 19 1794 that she ”is very mundane; passable features, terrible teeth, the voice of a fishwife, an awkward appearance, that's what constitutes Madame Momoro.”

Théroigne de Mericourt — described as being of ”middling height” by former deputy Jacques-Antoine Dulaure in 1823 and psychiatrist Jean-Etienne-Dominique Esquirol in 1838, and ”somewhat above middle size of women” by English visitor John Moore in 1792. Dulaure writes she ”bore on her face the characteristics of vivacity and audacity,” Moore that she ”has a martial air, which in a man would not be disagreeable.” Théroigne was brown according to Dulaure, while Esquirol adds that she had brown (chátain) hair and big blue eyes. Moore describes her costume as ”a kind of English riding habit, but her jacket was the uniform of the national guards,” while Dulaure recalls ”with her blue cloth costume, her hat on her ear, her cane in her hand and sometimes pistols in her pockets, she appeared wherever trouble broke out.” Esquirol, who met Théroigne when she was hospitalized at the Pitié-Salpêtrière claims that she at the time was of ”mobile physiognomy, lively, clear, and even elegant gait.”

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti de Mirabeau — In Les Mirabeau: nouvelles etudes sur la societe francaise au XVIIIe siecle (1891) Louis de Loménie mentions a letter dated 1754, where Mirabeau’s uncle reported to his brother that ”your son is as ugly as Satan’s.” He’s five years old maybe chill a little? An equally unflattering descriptions is given by François René Chateaubriand, who in Mémoires d’Outre-tombe(1860) wrote that Danton was ”inferior in ugliness to Mirabeau,” and similar words can again be found in Mémoires de la Societé d’agriculture, commerce, sciences et arts du department de la Marse, Chalons-sur-Marne (1862): ”With Danton as with Mirabeau, speech was greatly aided by the gaze, the gesture and that energetic ugliness of the face.” In Considerations on the principal events of the French Revolution (1818) Germaine de Staël writes: ”The eye that was once fixed on [Mirabeau’s] countenance was not likely to be soon withdrawn: his immense head of hair distinguished him from amongst the rest, and suggested the idea that, like Samson, his strength depended on it; his countenance derived expression even from its ugliness; and his whole person conveyed the idea of irregular power, but still such power as we should expect to find in a tribune of the people.” A child who had seen Mirabeau during the procession that preceded the opening of the provincial Estates later recalled that he had ”thick hair, brushed up above his broad forehead, and ending in thick curls at the level of the ears” and again that ”there was something imposing about his ugliness.” (cited in Mirabeau(1973) by Antonia Vallentin). Finally, in a letter from 1770, Mirabeau’s uncle writes that ”I found him ugly, but he has not a bad physiognomy: and he has, behind the ravages of the smallpox, and features which are much changed, something graceful, intellectual and noble.” (cited in Mirabeau: A Life-history, in Four Books (1848) by John Stores Smith).

Merlin de Douai — according to Mémoires de Larevellière-Lépeaux : membre du Directoire executif de la République Française et de l'Institut national (1895): ”his size is mediocre; he is thin, dry and gaunt. The thinness of his face makes his large mouth, his big eyes and his long nose stand out rather unfavorably. He is devoid of grace and dignity in his deportment. When one hears him speak for the first time in a somewhat raised tone, one is singularly shocked by the strange character of his voice; it is false, sharp, uneven and has something wild about it.”

Olympe de Gouges — A police description cited on page 35 of Olympe de Gouges (1989) by Oliver Blanc gives the following information: ”height of 1,68 meters, oval face, brown hair and eyebrows, brown eyes, a slightly aquiline nose, an uncovered forehead, a round, full chin, a medium mouth.”

Joseph Fouché — According to Fouché: les silences de la pieuvre (2014) by Emmanuel de Waresquiel, measurements made of Fouché’s skeleton in 1873 show that he was 175 cm tall. He was meagre according to both Philippe-Paul de Ségur (in Mémoires du général comte de Ségur (1894-1895)), Charles Nodier (Souvenirs de la Révolution et de l'Empire (1850)), Mathieu Molé and Victorine de Chastenay (Mémoires de madame de Chastenay, 1771-1815: L'empire. La restauration. Les cent-jours(1897)), who also all agree that there was something piercing about Fouché’s eyes. Said eyes were small according to Chastenay (who also adds that they were very close together) and Ségur. Nodier writes that they were of a light blue colour, while Chastenay calls them ”very red,” and Ségur and Molé ”bloody.” Chastenay, Ségur and Nodier do also each call Fouché pale, the latter even writing that it was ”a particular pallor, which belonged only to him” noting that it was clearly different from someone with anemia or other illness. This, combined with the testimony of Fouché’s ”red eyes,” hint at the idea that he was albino. In his memoirs (1896), Barras does indeed outright call Fouché’s child ”an actual albino,” while Molé writes Fouché had ”the dry hair of an albino.” Speaking of his hair, Ségur writes that it was ”flat and rare” and that Fouché was towheaded (cheveux couleur de filasse). Chastenay too underlines that ”in his youth his hair had been or should have been a very bland blond.” According to Barras, both Fouché and his wife Bonne-Jeanne Coiquaud did however have red hair. According to the memoirs(1834) of Charlotte Robespierre, ”Fouché wasn’t handsome,” and according to those of Barras, Fouché and his wife were a ”hideous couple.” Molé instead writes that he had ”fine features,” and that ”something at once ferocious, elegant and agile makes him resemble a panther.” Ségur on the other hand likened Fouché’s physiognomy to that of ”an agitated weasel” and writes that he had a ”long and mobile” face. Fouché ”spoke with ease” according to Chastenay, had ”a dry voice” according to Molé, and had a ”brief and jerky speech, consistent with his restless and convulsive attitude” according to Ségur.

Manon Roland — In her memoirs, Manon gives the following detailed description of herself: ”At fourteen, like today, I was about five pieds (162 cm) tall; my size had acquired all its growth; the leg well shaped, the foot well placed, the hips very raised, the chest broad, the shoulders effaced, the attitude firm and graceful, the walk rapid and light; this is what first hit the eye. There was nothing striking about my face, only great freshness, a lot of softness and expression. By detailing each of the features, one can ask oneself: Where is the beauty? Nothing is regular, everything pleases. The mouth is a little big; there are a thousand prettier ones; not one has a more tender and seductive smile. The eyes, on the contrary, are not very large, their iris is a grey-chestnut; but placed not very deep in the sockets, with an open, frank, lively and gentle gaze, crowned with brown eyebrows the same colour as the hair, and well defined, they vary in their expression, like the affectionate soul whose movements they paint; serious and proud, they sometimes surprise; but they caress much more, and always wakes you up. My nose was causing me some pain, I found it a little big at the tip; however, I considered that overall, and especially in profile, it did not spoil anything else. The broad, bare forehead, little covered at that age, supported by the very high orbit of the eye, and in the middle of which veins in Greek vanished at the slightest emotion, was far from the the insignificance that one finds on so many faces. As for the fairly upturned chin, it has precisely the characteristics that the physiognomies indicate for those of voluptuousness; when I bring them together with everything that is particular to me, I doubt that anyone was ever more made for it, and enjoyed it less. Bright rather than very white complexion, dazzling colors, frequently enhanced by the sudden redness of boiling blood, excited by the most sensitive nerves; the soft skin, the rounded arm, the pleasant hand, without being small, because its elongated and slender fingers announce skill and retain grace; fresh, tidy teeth; the plumpness of perfect health: such are the treasures that nature had given me. I have lost many, especially those who are plump and fresh; those who remain with me still hide, without me using any art, five to six of my years; and the very people who see me every day need me to tell them my age, to believe that I am over thirty-two or thirty-three. […] My portrait has been drawn several times, painted and engraved: none of these imitations gives the idea of ​​my person; it is difficult to grasp because I have more soul than face, more expression than features. […] Camille Desmoulins was right to be surprised that at my age, and with so little beauty, I had what he calls admirers.” Interestingly though, despite describing herself as only 162 cm tall, Manon gets called tall by both her friend Helen Maria Williams in Memoirs Of The Reign Of Robespierre (1795), as well as by Honoré Riouffe (who claimed to have seen her at the Conciergerie prison) in Mémoires d’un détenu pour servir à l’histoire de la tyrannie de Robespierre(1795).

Jean Marie Roland — in 1792, John Moore described Roland as ”about fifty years of age, tall, thin, of a mild countenance and pale complexion. His drefs, every time I have seen him, has been the same, a drab-coloured suit lined with green silk, his grey hair hanging loose” and that his ”manner is unassuming and modest” in his diary. According to Mémoires du marquis de Ferrières: avec une notice sur sa vie, des notes et des éclaircissemens historiques (1821) ”Roland looked like Plutarch or a Quaker in his Sunday best. Flat hair, little powder, a black coat, shoes with cords instead of buckles, made him look like a rhinoceros. However, he had a decent and pleasant face.”

Charles Alexis Brûlart de Genlis, the marquis de Sillery — in Memoirs Of The Reign Of Robespierre(1795) Helen Maria Williams writes Sillery had white hair by the time of his execution in October 1793.

Jean Baptiste Carrier — According to Pierre Paganel, ”Carrier was taller than the ordinary. He had an unpleasant face, but it was not very sinister.” At the time of his trial, a witness did instead describe him as "small, thick, stocky, he had black, frizzy hair and a swarthy complexion, his enormous, hanging lower lip gave him the vague appearance of a Negro" (cited in Carrier et la Terreur nantaise (1987) by Jean-Joël Brégeon).

Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varennes — Jacques Bernard, who met Billaud in 1800, wrote that ”he was tall, his broad, pale face did not reveal, by any external sign, a very energetic soul. His countenance was full of gentleness, he wore a wig of red hair, in the Jacobin style. His accent, his manners announced affability and a distinction that his costume, more than simple, could not erase. Trousers, a coarse canvas jacket, a wide-brimmed hat, large shoes, such was the costume of this Spartan.” Cited in Billaud-Varenne, membre du Comité de salut public : mémoires inédits et correspondance / accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud-Varenne et Collot-d'Herbois par Alfred Bégis(1893)

Jean-François Lacroix — According to the memoirs (1913) of Théodore de Lameth, Lacroix was ”of a frightening size and eloquence.” J.G Millingen agrees, writing in his Recollections of Republican France 1791-1801 (1848) that Lacroix was a man of ”colossal stature.” Millingen also attributes the following words to Lacroix, said at the foot of the scaffold: ”Do you see that axe, Danton? Well, even when my head is struck off I shall be taller than you!” 

Joachim Vilate — height of 5 pieds, 2 pouces (168 cm), brown (châtains) hair and eyebrows. Descriptions given in 1795 and cited in Les derniers montagnards (1874) by Jules Claretie.

Frev appearance descriptions masterpost

Jean-Paul Marat — In Histoire de la Révolution française: 1789-1796 (1851) Nicolas Villiaumé pins down Marat’s height to four pieds and eight pouces (around 157 cm). This is a somewhat dubious claim considering Villiaumé was born 26 years after Marat’s death and therefore hardly could have measured him himself, but we do know he had had contacts with Marat’s sister Albertine, so maybe there’s still something to this. That Marat was short is however not something Villaumé is alone in claiming. Brissot wrote in his memoirs that he was ”the size of a sapajou,” the pamphlet Bordel patriotique (1791) claimed that he had ”such a sad face, such an unattractive height,” while John Moore in A Journal During a Residence in France, From the Beginning of August, to the Middle of December, 1792 (1793) documented that ”Marat is little man, of a cadaverous complexion, and a countenance exceedingly expressive of his disposition. […] The only artifice he uses in favour of his looks is that of wearing a round hat, so far pulled down before as to hide a great part of his countenance.” In Portrait de Marat (1793) Fabre d’Eglantine left the following very detailed description: ”Marat was short of stature, scarcely five feet high. He was nevertheless of a firm, thick-set figure, without being stout. His shoulders and chest were broad, the lower part of his body thin, thigh short and thick, legs bowed, and strong arms, which he employed with great vigor and grace. Upon a rather short neck he carried a head of a very pronounced character. He had a large and bony face, aquiline nose, flat and slightly depressed, the under part of the nose prominent; the mouth medium-sized and curled at one corner by a frequent contraction; the lips were thin, the forehead large, the eyes of a yellowish grey color, spirited, animated, piercing, clear, naturally soft and ever gracious and with a confident look; the eyebrows thin, the complexion thick and skin withered, chin unshaven, hair brown and neglected. He was accustomed to walk with head erect, straight and thrown back, with a measured stride that kept time with the movement of his hips. His ordinary carriage was with his two arms firmly crossed upon his chest. In speaking in society he always appeared much agitated, and almost invariably ended the expression of a sentiment by a movement of the foot, which he thrust rapidly forward, stamping it at the same time on the ground, and then rising on tiptoe, as though to lift his short stature to the height of his opinion. The tone of his voice was thin, sonorous, slightly hoarse, and of a ringing quality. A defect of the tongue rendered it difficult for him to pronounce clearly the letters c and l, to which he was accustomed to give the sound g. There was no other perceptible peculiarity except a rather heavy manner of utterance; but the beauty of his thought, the fullness of his eloquence, the simplicity of his elocution, and the point of his speeches absolutely effaced the maxillary heaviness. At the tribune, if he rose without obstacle or excitement, he stood with assurance and dignity, his right hand upon his hip, his left arm extended upon the desk in front of him, his head thrown back, turned toward his audience at three-quarters, and a little inclined toward his right shoulder. If on the contrary he had to vanquish at the tribune the shrieking of chicanery and bad faith or the despotism of the president, he awaited the reéstablishment of order in silence and resuming his speech with firmness, he adopted a bold attitude, his arms crossed diagonally upon his chest, his figure bent forward toward the left. His face and his look at such times acquired an almost sardonic character, which was not belied by the cynicism of his speech. He dressed in a careless manner: indeed, his negligence in this respect announced a complete neglect of the conventions of custom and of taste and, one might almost say, gave him an air of ressemblance.”

Albertine Marat — both Alphonse Ésquiros and François-Vincent Raspail who each interviewed Albertine in her old age, as well as Albertine’s obituary (1841) noted a striking similarity in apperance between her and her older brother. Esquiros added that she had ”two black and piercing eyes.” A neighbor of Albertine claimed in 1847 that she had ”the face of a man,” and that she had told her that ”my comrades were never jealous of me, I was too ugly for that” (cited in Marat et ses calomniateurs ou Réfutation de l’Histoire des Girondins de Lamartine (1847) by Constant Hilbe) 

Simonne Evrard — An official minute from July 1792, written shortly after Marat’s death, affirmed the following: “Height: 1m, 62, brown hair and eyebrows, ordinary forehead, aquiline nose, brown eyes, large mouth, oval face.” The minute for her interrogation instead says: “grey eyes, average mouth.”Cited in this article by marat-jean-paul.org. When a neighbor was asked whether Simonne was pretty or not around two decades after her death in 1824, she responded that she was ”très-bien” and possessed ”an angelic sweetness” (cited in Marat et ses calomniateurs ou Réfutation de l’Histoire des Girondins de Lamartine (1847) by Constant Hilbe) while Joseph Souberbielle instead claimed that ”she was extremely plain and could never have had any good looks.”

Maximilien Robespierre — The hostile pampleth Vie secrette, politique et curieuse de M. J Maximilien Robespierre… released shortly after thermidor by L. Duperron, specifies Robespierre’s hight to have been ”five pieds and two or three pouces” (between 165 and 170 cm). He gets described as being ”of mediocre hight” by his former teacher Liévin-Bonaventure Proyart in 1795, ”a little below average height” by journalist Galart de Montjoie in 1795, ”of medium hight” by the former Convention deputy Antoine-Claire Thibaudeau in 1830 and ”of middling form” by his sister in 1834, but ”of small size” by John Moore in 1792 and Claude François Beaulieu in 1824. The 1792 pampleth Le véritable portrait de nos législateurs… wrote that Robespierre lacked ”an imposing physique, a body à la Danton,”supported by Joseph Fiévée who described him as ”small and frail” in 1836, and Louis Marie de La Révellière who said he was ”a physically puny man” in his memoirs published 1895. For his face, both François Guérin (on a note written below a sketch in 1791), Buzot in his Mémoires sur la Révolution française (written 1794), Germaine de Staël in her Considerations on the Principal Events of the French Revolution (1818), a foreign visitor by the name of Reichardt in 1792 (cited in Robespierre by J.M Thompson), Beaulieu and La Révellière-Lépeaux all agreed that he had a ”pale complexion.” Charlotte does instead describe it as ”delicate” and writes that Maximilien’s face ”breathed sweetness and goodwill, but it was not as regularly handsome as that of his brother,” while Proyart claims his apperance was ”entirely commonplace.” The foreigner Reichardt wrote Robespierre had ”flattened, almost crushed in, features,” something which Proyart agrees with, writing that his ”very flat features” consisted of ”a rather small head born on broad shoulders, a round face, an indifferent pock-marked complexion, a livid hue [and] a small round nose.” Thibaudeau writes Robespierre had a ”thin face and cold physiognomy, bilious complexion and false look,” Duperron that ”his colouring was livid, bilious;  his eyes gloomy and dull,” something which Stanislas Fréron in Notes sur Robespierre (1794) also agrees with, claiming that ”Robespierre was choked with bile. His yellow eyes and complexion showed it.” His eyes were however green according to Merlin de Thionville and Guérin while Proyart insists they were ”pale blue and slightly sunken.”  Etienne Dumont, who claimed to have talked to Robespierre twice, wrote in his Souvernirs sur Mirabeau et sur les deux premières assemblées législatives (1832) that ”he had a sinister appearance; he would not look people in the face, and blinked continually and painfully,” and Duperron too insists on ”a frequent flickering of the eyelids.” Both Fréron, Buzot, Merlin de Thionville, La Révellière, Louis Sébastien Mercier in his Le Nouveau Paris (1797) and Beffroy de Reigny in Dictionnaire néologique des hommes et des choses ou notice alphabétique des hommes de la Révolution, qui ont paru à l’Auteur les plus dignes d’attention… (1799) made the peculiar claim that Robespierre’s face was similar to that of a cat. Proyart, Beaulieu and Millingen all wrote that it was marked by smallpox scars, ”mediocretly” according to Proyart, ”deeply” according to the other two. Proyart also writes that Robespierre’s hair was light brown (châtain-blond). He is the only one to have described his hair color as far as I’m aware. 

For his clothes, both Montjoie, Louis-Sébastien Mercier in 1801, Helen Maria Williams in 1795, Duperron, Millingen and Fiévée recall the fact that Robespierre wore glasses, the first two claiming he never appeared in public without them, Duperron that he ”almost always” wore them, and Millingen that they were green. Pierre Villiers, who claimed to have served as Robespierre’s secretary in 1790, recalled in Souvenirs d'un deporté (1802) that Robespierre ”was very frugal, fastidiously clean in his clothes, I could almost say in his one coat, which was was of a dark olive colour,” but also that ”He was very poor and had not even proper clothes,” and even had to borrow a suit from a friend at one point. Duperron records that ”[Robespierre’s] clothes were elegant, his hair always neat,” Millingen that ”his dress was careful, and I recollect that he wore a frill and ruffles, that seemed to me of valuable lace,”Charlotte that ”his dress was of an extreme cleanliness without fastidiousness,” Williams that he ”always appeared not only dressed with neatness, but with some degree of elegance, and while he called himself the leader of the sans-culottes, never adopted the costume of his band. His hideous countenance […] was decorated with hair carefully arranged and nicely powdered,” Fiévée that Robespierre in 1793 was ”almost alone in having retained the costume and hairstyle in use before the Revolution,” something which made him ressemble ”a tailor from the Ancien régime,” Thibadeau that ”he was neat in his clothes, and he had kept the powder when no one wore it anymore,” Germaine de Staël that ”he was the only person who wore powder in his hair; his clothes were neat, and his countenance nothing familiar,” Révellière writes that Robespierre’s voice was ”toneless, monotonous and harsh,” Beaulieu that it ”was sharp and shrill, almost always in tune with violence,” and  Thinadeau that his ”tone” was ”dogmatic and imperious.”

Augustin Robespierre — described as ”big, well formed, and [with a] face full of nobility and beauty” in the memoirs of his sister Charlotte. Charles Nodier did in Souvenirs, épisodes et portraits pour servir à l'histoire de la Révolution et de l'Empire (1831) recall that Augustin had a ”pale and macerated physiognomy” and a quite monotonous voice.

Charlotte Robespierre — an anonymous doctor who claimed to have run into Charlotte in 1833, the year before her death, described her as ”very thin.” Jules Simon, who reported to have met her the following year, did him too describe her as ”a very thin woman, very upright in her small frame, dressed in the antique style with very puritanical cleanliness.”

Camille Desmoulins — described as ”quite tall, with good shoulders” in number 16 of the hostile journal Chronique du Manège (1790). Described as ugly by both said journal, the journal Journal Général de la Cour et de la Ville in 1791, his friend François Suleau in 1791, former teacher Proyart in 1795, Galart de Montjoie in 1796, Georges Duval in 1841, Amandine Rolland in 1864 (she does however add that it was ”with that witty and animated ugliness that pleases”) and even himself in 1793. Proyart describes his complexion as ”black,” Duval as ”bilious.” Both of them agree in calling his eyes ”sinister.” Duval also claims that Desmoulins’ physiognomy was similar to that of an ospray. Montjoie writes that Desmoulins had ”a difficult pronunciation, a hard voice, no oratorical talent,” Proyart that ”he spoke very heavily and stammered in speech” and Camille himself that he has ”difficulty in pronunciation” in a letter dated March 1787, and confesses ”the feebleness of my voice and my slight oratorical powers” in number 4 of the Vieux Cordelier. In his very last letter to his wife, dated April 1 1794, Desmoulins reveals that he wears glasses.

Lucile Desmoulins — The concierge at the Sainte-Pélagie prison documented the following when Lucille was brought before him on April 4 1794: ”height of five pieds and one and a half pouce (166 cm). Brown hair, eyebrows and eyes. Middle sized nose and mouth. Round face and chin. Ordinary front. A mark above the chin on the right.” Cited in Camille et Lucile Desmoulins: un rêve de république (2018). Described as beautiful by the journal Journal Général de la Cour et de la Ville in 1791 (it specifies her to be ”as pretty as her husband is ugly”), former Convention deputy Pierre Paganel in 1815, Louis Marie Prudhomme in 1830, Amandine Rolland in 1864 and Théodore de Lameth (memoirs published 1913).

Georges Danton — Described as having an ugly face by both Manon Roland in 1793, Vadier in 1794, the anonymous pamphlet Histoire, caractère de Maximilien Robespierre et anecdotes sur ses successeurs in 1794, Louis-Sébastien Mercier in 1797, Antoine Fantin-Desodoards in 1807, John Gideon Millingen in 1848, Élisabeth Duplay Lebas in the 1840s, the memoirs (1860) of François-René Chateaubriand (he specifies that Danton had ”the face of a gendarme mixed with that of a lustful and cruel prosecutor”) as well as the Mémoires de la Societé d’agriculture, commerce, sciences et arts du department de la Marse, Chalons-sur-Marne (1862). As reason for this ugliness, Millingen lifts his ”course, shaggy hair” (that apparently gave him the apperance of a ”wild beast”), the fact he was deeply marked with small-poxes, and that his eyes were unusually small (”and sparkling in surrounding darkness”), while Chateaubriand instead underlines that he was ”snub-nosed,” with ”windy nostrils [and] seamed flats.” Mercier writes that Danton’s face was ”hideously crushed.” The former Convention deputy Alexandre Rousselin (1774-1847) reported in his Danton — Fragment Historique that Danton developed a lip deformity after getting gored by a bull as a baby, had his nose crushed by another bull, got trampled in the face by a group of pigs and finally survived ”a very serious case of smallpoxes, accompanied by purpura.” In 1792, John Moore reported that ”Danton is not so tall, but much broader than Roland; his form is coarse and uncommonly robust,” while Vadier claims that Danton possessed a ”robust form, colossal eloquence,” the anonymous pamphlet that ”he was very strong, he said himself that he had athletic forms,” Desodoards that he ”held the nature of athletic and colossal forms,” Chateaubriand that he was ”a vandal in the size of Goth” (don’t know who he’s referring to), Pierre Paganel (in Essai historique et critique sur la révolution française: ses causes, ses résultats, avec les portraits des hommes les plus célèbres (1815)) that he was of an ”enormous stature,” while the pamphlet described him as a ”gigantic orator” whose voice ”shook the vaults of the hall.” René Levasseur in 1829, John Moore, Millingen, Paganel and Desodoards all agreed with this, the first four writing that Danton possessed a ”stentorian voice,” the latter that he had ”a very strong voice, without being sonorous or flexible.” In her memoirs (1834) Charlotte Robespierre claims that ”[Danton] did not at all conserve the dignity suited to the representative of a great people in his manners; his toilette was in disorder.”

Louis Antoine Saint-Just — In Saint-Just (1985) Bernard Vinot writes that Saint-Just’s childhood friend Augustin Lejeune recalled his “honest physiognomy,” and that his sister Louise would evoke her brother’s ”great beauty” for her grandchildren (I unfortunately can’t find the original sources here). The elderly Élisabeth Le Bas too stated that ”he was handsome, Saint-Just, with his pensive face, on which one saw the greatest energy, tempered by an air of indefinable gentleness and candor” (testimony found in Les Carnets de David d’Angers (1838-1855) by Pierre-Jean David d’Angers, cited in Veuve de Thermidor: le rôle et l'influence d'Élisabeth Duplay-Le Bas (1772-1859) sur la mémoire et l'historiographie de la Révolution française (2023) by Jolène Audrey Bureau, page 127). In Souvenirs de la révolution et de l’empire, Charles Nodier (who was twelve years old when he met Saint-Just…) agrees in calling him ”handsome,” but adds that he ”was far from offering this graceful combination of cute features with which we have seen it endowed by the euphemistic pencil of a lithograph,” had an ”ample and rather disproportionate chin,” that ”the arc of his eyebrows, instead of rounding into smooth and regular semi-circles, was closer to a straight line, and its interior angles, which were bushy and severe, merged into one another at the slightest serious thought that one saw pass on his forehead” and finally that ”his soft and fleshy lips indicated an almost invincible inclination to laziness and voluptuousness.” How would you know what his lips were like, Nodier. In Essai historique et critique sur la révolution française (1815) Pierre Paganel writes that Saint-Just had ”regular features and austere physiognomy.” He describes his complexion as ”bilious” while Nodier calls it ”pale and grayish, like that of most of the active men of the revolution.” Similar to Élisabeth’s description, Nodier writes that Saint-Just’s eyes were big and ”usually thoughtful,” while Paganel instead writes they were ”small and lively.” Saint-Just was of ”average height” according to Paganel, but ”of small stature” according to Nodier. According to Paganel, Saint-Just had a ”healthy body [and] proportions which expressed strength,” while Saint-Just’s colleague Levasseur de la Sarthe instead wrote in his memoirs that he was ”weak in body, to the point of fearing the whistling of bullets.” Finally, Paganel also gives the following details: ”large head, thick hair, disdainful gaze, strong but veiled voice, a general tinge of anxiety, the dark accent of concern and distrust, an extreme coldness in tone and manners.” In Lettre de Camille Desmoulins, député de Paris à la Convention, August général Dillon en prison aux Madelonettes (1793) Desmoulins jokingly writes that ”one can see by [Saint-Just’s] gait and bearing that he looks upon his own head as the corner-stone of the Revolution, for he carries it upon his shoulders with as much respect and as if it was the Sacred Host.” In Histoire de la Révolution française(1878), Jules Michelet claims that Élisabeth Le Bas had told him that this portrait, depicting Saint-Just as having ”a very low forehead, [with] the top of his head flattened, so that his hair, without being long, almost touched his eyes,” was similar to what he had looked like.

Jacques-Pierre Brissot — The following was documented after Brissot had been arrested at Moulins on June 10 1793 — ”height of five pieds (162 cm), a small amount of flat dark brown hair, eyebrows of the same color, high forehead and receding hairline, gray-brown, quite large and covered eyes, long and not very large nose, average mouth, long chin with a dimple, black beard, oval face narrow at the bottom” (cited in J.-P. Brissot mémoires (1754-1793); [suivi de] correspondance et papiers (1912)). In Journal During a Residence in France, from the Beginning of August, to the Middle of December, 1792 John Moore described Brissot as ”a little man, of an intelligent countenance, but of a weakly frame of body” and claimed that a person had told him that Brissot had told him that he is ”of so feeble a constitution” that he won’t be able to put up any resistance was someone try to assassinate him.

Jérôme Pétion — described as ”big and fat” (grand et gros) by Louis-Philippe in 1850 (cited in The Croker Papers: the Correspondence and Diaries of the late right honourable John Wilson Croker… (1885) volume 3, page 209). Manon Roland wrote in her memoirs that Pétion ”had nothing to regret physically; his size, his face, his gentleness, his urbanity, speak in his favor” as well as that he ”spoke fairly well,” a descriptions which Louis Marie Prudhomme partly agreed with, himself recording that Pétion ”had a proud countenance, a fairly handsome face, an affable look, a gentle eloquence, movements of talent and address; but his manners were composed, his eyes were dull, and he had something glistening in his features which repelled confidence” in Paris pendant le révolution (1789-1798) ou le nouveau Paris (1798). In Quelques notices pour l’histoire, et le récit de mes périls depuis le 31 mai 1793 (1794) Jean-Baptiste Louvet reported that, while on the run from the authorities after the insurrection of May 31, the less than forty years old Pétion already had a white hair and beard. This is confirmed by Frédéric Vaultier, who in Souvenirs de l'insurrection Normande, dite du Fédéralisme, en 1793 (1858) described Pétion during the same period as ”a good-looking man, with a calm and open physiognomy and beautiful white hair,” as well as by the examination of his mangled courpse on June 26 1794, which states he had ”grayish hair” (cited in Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins: pièces classées et annotées (1872) by Charles Vatel, volume 2, page 154.

François Buzot — according to the memoirs (1793) of Manon Roland, he had ”a noble figure and elegant size.” In the examination made of Buzot’s body after the suicide there is to read that he had black hair (cited in Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins: pièces classées et annotées (1872) by Charles Vatel, volume 2, page 153)

Charles Barbaroux — his son wrote in Jeunesse de Barbaroux (1822) that ”nature had richly endowed Barbaroux; a robust and large body; a charming, fine and witty physiognomy.” In 1867, François Laprade, who had witnessed Barbaroux’ execution as a thirteen year old, recollected that ”he was a brown man - that is to say he had brownish skin, black hair and beard, reclining figure” (cited in Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins: pièces classées et annotées, volume 3, page 728)

Marguerite-Élie Guadet — According to his passport (cited in Charlotte de Corday et les Girondins: pièces classées et annotées, volume 3, page 672): ”height of 5 pieds, 5 pouces (176 cm) middle sized mouth, black hair and eyebrows, ordinary chin, blue eyes, big forehead, thin face, upturned nose.” According to Frédéric Vaultier’s Souvenirs de l'insurrection Normande, dite du Fédéralisme, en 1793(1858), ”Guadet was a man of fine height, meagre, brown, bilious complexion, black beard, most expressive face.”

Joseph Le Bon — his passport description (cited in Louis Jacob, Joseph Le Bon, (1932) by Louis Jacob, volume 1, page 63) gives the following information: ”Height of five pieds six pouces (178 cm), light brown hair and eyebrows, high forehead, average nose, blue eyes, medium-sized mouth, smallpox scars.”

Claire Lacombe — the concierge of the Sainte Pélagie documented the following about the imprisoned Lacombe: ”height of 5 pieds, 2 pouces (168 cm). Brown hair, eyebrows and eyes, medium nose, large mouth, round face and chin, plain forehead” (cited in Trois femmes de la Révolution : Olymps de Gouges, Théroigne de Méricourt, Rose Lacombe (1900) by Léopold Lacour)

Charlotte Corday — according to her passport, ”height of five pieds one pouce (165 cm), brown hair and eyebrows, gray eyes, high forehead, long nose, medium mouth, round, forked (fourchu) chin, oval face.” (cited in Dossiers du procès criminel de Charlotte Corday, devant le Tribunal révolutionnaire(1861) by Charles-Joseph Vatel, page 55)

Prieur de la Marne — a passport dated October 1 1793 gives the following details: ”age of 37 years, height of 5 pieds 5 pouces (176 cm), blondish brown hair and eyebrows, receding hairline, long nose, grey eyes, large mouth.”

Maurice Duplay — ”height of 5 pieds 6 pouces (179 cm), blondish brown hair and eyebrows, receding hairline, grey eyes, long, open nose, large mouth, round, full chin and face.” Descriptions given in 1795 and cited in Les deniers montagnards (1874) by Jules Claretie.

Jean Lambert Tallien — Both a spy report written in 1794 found among Robespierre’s papers and Mme de la Tour du Pin, a noblewoman who met Tallien in late 1793, describe Tallien’s hair as blonde. Mme de la Tour du Pin adds that said hair was curly and that he had a pretty face.

[newstfionline]

Saturday, June 29, 2024

The world’s most livable cities for 2024 (CNN) It’s considered among the most beautiful cities in the world to visit, and it seems that Vienna may also be an unbeatable place to live. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked 173 cities across the globe on a number of significant factors, including health care, culture and environment, stability, infrastructure and education. Vienna topped the list for the third consecutive year, receiving “perfect” scores in four out of five of the categories. Just behind the Austrian capital, Denmark’s Copenhagen retained its second place position, while Switzerland’s Zurich moved up from sixth place to third on the list. Australia’s Melbourne fell from third to fourth place, while Canadian city Calgary tied for fifth place with Swiss city Geneva. Canada’s Vancouver and Australia’s Sydney were in joint seventh place, and Japan’s Osaka and New Zealand’s Auckland rounded out the top 10 in joint ninth place. In 23rd place, Honolulu, Hawaii was the highest US city on the list. Los Angeles was further down the list in 58th place, while New York came in at No. 70.

Meet the 1st federal candidate in Canadian history to lose an election with zero votes (CBC) Losing can be difficult no matter the outcome, but one aspiring Canadian politician has had to swallow a particularly bitter pill. On Monday, musician and independent candidate Félix-Antoine Hamel received zero votes in Toronto-St. Paul’s local election—making him the first Canadian to ever face such an electoral loss. “When I saw the result, I was like, ‘Well, I am the true unity candidate. Everyone agrees not to vote for me,’” Hamel told CBC News.

How the world reacted to Biden’s ‘disastrous’ debate performance (Washington Post) Capitals around the world had already been hedging their bets about a second Trump presidency, but that planning is likely to go into overdrive after President Biden’s halting debate performance, diplomats and analysts said Friday, with global leaders increasingly convinced that Trump will win and usher in a sharp break from Biden’s foreign policy. Diplomats in Washington set up watch parties on Thursday night as they drafted cables to send to their bosses at home. Leaders in distant time zones got up early to watch Biden’s stumbles and Trump’s inaccuracies. And many emerged convinced that the current occupant of the White House will not be resident there much longer, as they considered how to calibrate strategies that would appeal to Trump’s zero-sum view of the world. “Initially, Biden looked completely lost,” one diplomat said by text message as the debate was still underway, speaking, like others, on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly about the domestic politics of an ally. “As always, it doesn’t matter what you say but how you say it and how it looks.”

Norway to stockpile grain (San Francisco Chronicle) The Norwegian government on Tuesday signed a deal to start stockpiling grain, saying the COVID-19 pandemic, a war in Europe and climate change have made it necessary. The deal to store 30,000 tons of grain in 2024 and 2025 was signed by agriculture and food minister Geir Pollestad, finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum and four private companies. The wheat, which will belong to the Norwegian government, will be stored in already existing facilities by the companies in facilities across the country. Three of the companies will store at least 15,000 tons this year.

The twilight of Macronism? (Washington Post) The once-unthinkable now seems an imminent reality. The French far right is poised to become the largest party in France’s parliament, if polls surrounding the two-stage snap election starting Sunday are accurate. Projections suggest that the far-right National Rally could emerge with the biggest bloc of seats, followed by a rival coalition comprising the French left, and then the centrist party loyal to French President Emmanuel Macron trailing in a distant third. The result would be astonishing on multiple levels, likely yielding France’s first far-right prime minister and plunging the final years of Macron’s presidency—he is ineligible to run for a third term—into dysfunctional crisis. Macron and his highhanded political style may be directly to blame, and so too his inability to forge a genuine grass-roots movement under his banner.

Romanian village set to become Nato's biggest airbase in Europe (BBC) Six RAF Eurofighter Typhoons sit on the taxiway, engines roaring on two, as the ground staff hurry about, adding the finishing touches before take-off. In the distance, a cloud of dust rises in the summer haze over the construction site of the second runway, 3.5km (2 miles) long, beside the first. The hot northerly wind buffets the new hangars and the old. Mihai Kogalniceanu (MK) airbase takes its name from the village nearby, itself named after a 19th Century liberal politician. Now, it is the unlikely setting for what is turning into the biggest Nato base in Europe, bigger even than Ramstein in Germany. The MK base will soon have a squadron of Romanian F-16s - recently bought from Norway - as well as MQ-9 Reaper drones, and a military city through which Nato army, air force and naval personnel from 32 countries will rotate. The latest arrivals are the Finns. Just 20km (12 miles) from the Black Sea coast, the base is 300km from Odesa, as the fighter flies, and 400km from Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Russia Sends Waves of Troops to the Front in a Brutal Style of Fighting (NYT) May was a particularly deadly month for the Russian army in Ukraine, with an average of more than 1,000 of its soldiers injured or killed each day, according to U.S., British and other Western intelligence agencies. But despite its losses, Russia is recruiting 25,000 to 30,000 new soldiers a month—roughly as many as are exiting the battlefield, U.S. officials said. That has allowed its army to keep sending wave after wave of troops at Ukrainian defenses, hoping to overwhelm them and break through the trench lines. It is a style of warfare that Russian soldiers have likened to being put into a meat grinder, with commanding officers seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are sending infantry soldiers to die.

Pakistan: Mounting death toll from heatwave (BBC) Temperatures in southern Pakistan have soared above 40C (104F), with high humidity making it feel as hot as 49C. Civil Hospital Karachi admitted 267 people with heatstroke between Sunday and Wednesday. Most of the patients had been working outdoors. Wasim Ahmed knew he wasn’t feeling well when he arrived home. The 56-year-old security guard had just finished a 12-hour overnight shift outside. Even then, he had found the temperatures too much. “He came through the door and said I can’t deal with this hot weather,” Adnan Zafar, Wasim’s cousin, told the BBC. “He asked for a glass of water. Soon after he finished it, he collapsed.” By the time Wasim’s family got him to hospital, the medics said he had already died of a suspected heart attack.

US security assistance to Israel (Washington Post) The United States has provided $6.5 billion in security assistance to Israel since its war with Hamas started Oct. 7, with nearly $3 billion approved in May. Those previously unannounced figures were part of discussions this week with a visiting delegation headed by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews block highway to protest Israel’s new mandatory military service ruling (AP) Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men blocked a major highway in central Israel for two hours on Thursday to protest a recent Supreme Court decision ordering young religious men to enlist for military service. Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel. But politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties have won draft exemptions for their followers that allow them instead to study in religious seminaries. The ultra-Orthodox see their full-time religious study as their part in protecting the state. Many fear that greater contact with secular society through the military will distance adherents from strict observance of the faith. The ultra-Orthodox make up roughly 13% of Israel’s population. But under the country’s fragmented political system, they wield significant political power and often serve as political kingmakers. The parties are key members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition and could potentially force new elections if they decide to leave the government.

As tensions soar, U.S. pushes for deal to avert Israel-Lebanon war (Washington Post) U.S. officials say they are working to quiet fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that has pushed Lebanon to the brink of all-out war—an effort complicated by the administration’s struggle to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, analysts and diplomats said. Fear that months of deadly tit-for-tat violence near the Lebanese border could devolve into an even more devastating conflict peaked this month, after Israel assassinated a senior Hezbollah commander and the militant group retaliated with massive rocket barrages. This week, several countries, including Germany and Canada, warned their citizens to leave Lebanon, citing the threat of worsening hostilities. The United States has not yet ordered its citizens to evacuate, but this week it sent an amphibious ship, the USS Wasp, carrying Marines trained for evacuations, to the Mediterranean Sea. The Pentagon has declined to comment on any evacuations plans for Lebanon. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, political party and ally of Hamas, has repeatedly said that a halt to Israel’s offensive in Gaza is necessary before its fighters stand down.

‘The scariest place on earth’: inside the DMZ as tensions between North and South Korea rise (Guardian) Just a stone’s throw from North Korea, farmer Park Se-un tends to his crops under the watchful eye of the South Korean military. In the distance, past the bushes and fields strewn with landmines, he can see North Korean soldiers on patrol. Park’s village of Daeseong-dong is the only inhabited area in the south of Korea’s demilitarised zone (DMZ), located just 365 metres from North Korea at its closest point. Born and raised inside this zone, Park is used to the political tensions that shape his everyday life. Described as “the scariest place on earth” by Bill Clinton when he visited as president in 1993, the DMZ has served as a buffer between the two Koreas since their three-year conflict ended in 1953 with an armistice but not a peace treaty—meaning that the neighbours are still technically at war. But with tensions across the increasingly militarised DMZ rising, residents like Park now find themselves hoping this fragile peace can continue. “This all makes us nervous. What if something happens? It’s always on our minds,” he says.

At Least 750,000 on Brink of Starvation and Death in Sudan, Experts Warn (NYT) At least 750,000 people are on the brink of starvation and death in Sudan, where a devastating civil war has left over half the country’s 48 million people in a situation of chronic hunger, the global authority on famine said on Thursday. At least 14 areas across the country are near famine, including some in the capital, Khartoum, according to the latest figures from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a group of experts from U.N. bodies and major relief agencies that measures hunger and formally declares famine. The dire update appeared to confirm warnings from aid experts that Sudan is hurtling toward a humanitarian disaster on a scale not seen in decades. “This is possibly the crisis of a generation,” said Edouard Rodier, Europe director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, who was in western Sudan last week. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” In a report issued on Thursday, the group said that 25.6 million Sudanese, or over half the population, were in a food crisis. Of them, 8.5 million are acutely malnourished or scrambling to survive while 755,000 are in a “catastrophe”—essentially, famine conditions.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"8 Medical Men Guilty," Windsor Star. February 22, 1943. Page 9. --- One Officer Dismissed From Army; Four Jail Sentences ---- QUEBEC, Feb. 22.-Eight of nine army medical officers and men who recently faced a general court martial here following alleged irregularities in medical examinations of army recruits have been found guilty, it was announced last night by Brig. E. A. Blais, officer commanding military district No. 5.

The announcement, made public last night after the eight had been paraded before Brig. Blais, also contained sentences which included, for the officers, one dismissal, one severe reprimand and rank penalty, one severe reprimand and one reprimand.

The other ranks were sentenced to periods of detention ranging from 45 days to nine months.

M.P. EXONERATED Of the nine men to face the court- all members of No. 5 company of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps except one private-only one, Lieut. (acting captain) Pierre Gauthier, Bloc Canadien Populaire member of Parliament for Portneuf, was completely exonerated.

Findings and sentences of the court - presided over by Brig. J. A. Leclaire and which sat from November 25 to January 8 - were forwarded to Ottawa to the adjutant-general's department for confirmation before being announced.

OFFICERS AND SENTENCES Capt. G. A. Grondin, 43, of Quebec, was found guilty on a charge of accepting various sums of money during the performance of his military duties and was sentenced "to be dismissed from His Majesty's service."

Maj. Ludovic Lavallee, 52, of Neuville, Que., was acquitted of a charge of having examined various persons prior to their regular army medical board but was convicted of having accepted sums of money in connection with examinations and of having shared the money with another accused person.

He was sentenced to be severely reprimanded and given a rank penalty which will result in his majority being dated from January 8-date of the end of the court martial-instead of before (The date when Maj. Lavallee originally won his majority was not im- mediately available.)

Military sources and Antoine Rivard, K.C., who acted as defence counsel for the officers and men, said that the rank penalty meant Maj. Lavallee would forfeit his seniority for one year up to January 8.

Maj. Celestin Guimont, 34. of Pont Rouge, Que, was freed of charges of having examined persons prior to their regular army medical board but was found guilty of having accepted sums of money in connection with examinations. He was sentenced to a severe reprimand.

Capt. Yves Gadbois, 26, of Quebec, was sentenced to be reprimanded for having accepted $20 while performing his military duties.

Details of the reprimands were not made public in any case.

CASES OF OTHER RANKS In the cases of the other ranks, whose sentences start from January 8, Pte. Leopold Houde, 35, of Quebec drew the heaviest term - nine months' detention. He was found guilty of having accepted sums of money in the performance of his duties and of having distributed the money among other medical personnel.

Pte. Georges Fortin, 24, of Quebec, who faced the same charges as Houde, was acquitted on the second count but was sentenced to 90 days' detention on the first charge.

Pte. Louis Philippe Hamel, 25, of Quebec, charged similarly to Houde and Fortin, also was given 90 days.

Pte. Paul Henri Cloutier, 19, of Charlesbourg. Que., only man to enter a plea of guilty and a member of No. 5 district depot, was given 45 days detention on a charge of having accepted bribes.

There was no question of irregularities in the medical examinations themselves, the court emphasized.

MEMBERS OF COURT The court was composed of Brig. Leclaire; Col. J. R. Roche, Le Regiment de Maisonneuve; Lt. Col. G. E. Bouchard. Le Regiment de la Chau- diere; Lt.-Col. C. L. Laurin, Le Regiment de Chateauguay; Lt.-Col. G. L.. Taschereau, Le Regiment de la Chaudiere: Lt. Col. P. Trudeau, Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal and Maj. R. G. Marion, Les Fusiliers Mont Royal.

Maj. Maurice Lalonde acted as judge advocate and Lt.-Col. Laval Fortier was Crown prosecutor. Antoine Rivard, K.C., acted for the officers and men.

Mr. Rivard said he would make an appeal against the judgments "to competent authorities."

[coulisses-tv]

"La stagiaire" : la saison 8 diffusée sur France 3 à partir du 29 août 2023 avec Michèle Bernier et Antoine Hamel

http://dlvr.it/StPvmK

[itaims]

Node.js 20 : New Features, Updates and Improvements

Node.js, the popular open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment, has released version 20 with several exciting features and updates. 

One of the most significant additions is the experimental Permission Model, which restricts access to specific resources during program execution. The ESM loader hooks now run on a dedicated thread to ensure no cross-contamination between loaders and application code. The V8 engine has been updated to version 11.3, which includes three new features to the JavaScript API. Additionally, the URL parser Ada 2.0 brings significant performance improvements to URL parsing. Node.js 20 also includes official support for ARM64 Windows. Several deprecations and removals are included, such as the runtime deprecation of url.parse() with invalid ports.

In this blog, we will take a closer look at some of the notable changes and additions to Node.js.

Introduction of the Permission Model

Enables developers to restrict access to specific resources during program execution

Prevents applications from accessing or modifying sensitive data or running potentially harmful code

Enabled by using the --experimental-permission flag

Contributed by Rafael Gonzaga

Improvements to the ESM (ECMAScript Modules) loader hooks

ESM hooks supplied via loaders now run in a dedicated thread, isolated from the main thread

Provides a separate scope for loaders and ensures no cross-contamination between loaders and application code

import.meta.resolve() now returns synchronously, providing better alignment with browser behavior

Contributed by Anna Henningsen, Antoine du Hamel, Geoffrey Booth, Guy Bedford, Jacob Smith, and Michaël Zasso

Updated V8 engine to version 11.3

Includes three new features to the JavaScript API: String.prototype.isWellFormed and toWellFormed, resizable ArrayBuffer and growable SharedArrayBuffer, and WebAssembly Tail Call

RegExp v flag with set notation + properties of strings have been added

Contributed by Michaël Zasso

Official support for ARM64 Windows

Allows for native execution on the platform

The MSI, zip/7z packages, and executable are available from the Node.js download site

The CI system was updated, and all changes are now fully tested on ARM64 Windows to prevent regressions and ensure compatibility

Contributed by Stefan Stojanovic

The latest version of the URL parser, Ada 2.0

Brings significant performance improvements to the URL parsing

Enhancements to the url.domainToASCII and url.domainToUnicode functions in node:url

Ada 2.0 has been integrated into the Node.js codebase

Features a significant performance boost over its predecessor, Ada 1.0.4, while also eliminating the need for the ICU requirement for URL hostname parsing

Contributed by Yagiz Nizipli and Daniel Lemire

Test_runner module marked as stable

Previously experimental, now stable and ready for production use

Contributed by Colin Ihrig

Deprecations and Removals

Runtime-deprecation of url.parse() with invalid ports

These URLs will emit a warning, and in future versions, they will throw an error, as the WHATWG URL API already does

Contributed by Rich Trott

Conclusion 

Overall, Node.js version 20 comes with several notable changes and improvements that make it more stable and efficient. Developers can take advantage of the experimental Permission Model feature, the Custom ESM loader hooks running on a dedicated thread, and the updated V8 engine with several new features to the JavaScript API. Other notable changes include the stable test runner module, the latest version of the URL parser Ada 2.0, official support for ARM64 Windows, and the requirement to specify the WASI version.

It is recommended to carefully review the release notes before upgrading to ensure compatibility with existing code.

[frevandrest]

Hello, what do we know about SJ and Henriette Le Bas engagement? Do we have any details about it?

We don't know much. We don't even know if it was a proper engagement or wtf it was. However, it is well-established that there was ~something going on that made Henriette and her family believe she was involved (?) with SJ with the goal of eventually getting married. Whether SJ was on the same page or not is another matter.

I am not sure we have a proper timeline, but we know that Henriette accompanied Elisabeth when she went with Philippe and SJ to the army. This was in October 1793. Henriette had just turned 19 (on 8th October). I assume this is where she and SJ had a chance to spend a bit more time together (well, along with Elisabeth and Philippe). Elisabeth tells us that SJ was really nice and attentive toward her and Henriette during the long and unpleasant journey, but she does not share any hints about SJ and Henriette being a couple in her memoirs, so it's difficult to tell when they were considered engaged.

Fast forward to late April/early May of next year, when it was over, whatever it was. Hamel reports that the reason was allegedly because Henriette sniffed/chewed tobacco, and SJ was "ewww, gross, adieu!" but this is generally accepted as a bullshit excuse for breaking up. But the real reason can only be speculated. After this, SJ ghosted Henriette. We know it, because we have letters that Philippe and Elisabeth exchanged during that time, in which they discuss this matter. It also seems like poor Henriette had no idea what happened - she tried writing to SJ but he ignored her. (There's an anecdote about a letter she addressed to both Philippe and SJ; SJ opened it, read it and handed it back to Philippe with something along the lines of "nah, this one is just for you"). WTF Antoine???

All in all, it is clear that Philippe, Elisabeth and Henriette herself were looking forward (and pushing?) for this union, but SJ was less than enthusiastic about this. It is even said (although idk how correct this is) that SJ and Le Bas' friendship suffered for it and never fully recovered. (Even though Le Bas remained loyal to the political cause and asked to share Robespierre and SJ's fate on Thermidor). At the same time, it is doubtful there was an official engagement between SJ and Henriette; if there were, Le Bas' duty as a brother would be to react more strongly to a man breaking an official promise. (It kind of reminds me of Fouché and Charlotte Robespierre - there was something, but Robespierre did not react strongly upon Fouché not marrying his sister). So I doubt there was something official official in terms of engagement between Henriette and SJ.

As for the true reasons on why SJ decided not to go through it... Like I said, we can only speculate. Many things were offered, such as: SJ not even realizing he was considered engaged to Henriette, him simply not wanting to be pushed into anything, SJ knowing his political position was dangerous and not wanting to endanger his wife/leave her a widow, SJ not wanting to get married, period, SJ wanting to be with Thérèse Gellé or SJ wanting to distance himself from Robespierre. (And probably some other stuff, but these are some of the most common reasons given in the speculation).

[flash-impact-for-good]

De quelques valeurs à promouvoir dans nos entreprises

Photo by Philipp Birmes from Pexels

A l’heure où beaucoup insistent sur l’accélération, le tout technologique, ou la résilience, il paraît utile de promouvoir d’autres valeurs pour faire contrepoids à la pensée dominante et bâtir un « next normal » qui ne se vive pas uniquement comme de la gestion de crise permanente. Il faut réhabiliter les valeurs d’engagement autour d’une intention stratégique, promouvoir davantage l’utilité sociale et le temps long pour apporter non seulement des solutions mais aussi des perspectives au plus grand nombre dans l’entreprise et dans la société.

1. L’engagement

« Si tu veux construire un bateau, fais naître dans le cœur de tes hommes le désir de la mer » Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Citadelle, 1948.

En France, on considère que moins de 10% des collaborateurs sont activement engagés. Or, cette notion traduit l’implication d’un collaborateur dans son travail, vis-à-vis de ses collègues et de l’environnement, et indique dans quelle mesure il contribue au succès de l’entreprise et est aligné sur ses valeurs et objectifs. A l’inverse, on peut penser que le désengagement de tous les collaborateurs condamne l’entreprise à la stagnation et au déclin.

En effet, « ce n’est pas l’argent qui propulse l’entreprise vers l’avenir, mais l’énergie intellectuelle et affective des salariés ; c’est pourquoi l’aptitude à mobiliser jusqu’à la dernière goutte cette énergie constitue le vrai nerf de la guerre », selon Gary Hamel(1).

Le rêve capable de dynamiser une entreprise, c’est « l’intention stratégique », question centrale pour toutes les entreprises qui cherchent à donner du sens au collectif dans un contexte de remise en cause des modèles traditionnels, et de perte de repères, du fait notamment de la révolution digitale et de la mondialisation, mais aussi d’une focalisation sur le court terme dans un contexte d’hyper-compétition, et de désengagement croissant, en particulier affectif, des collaborateurs et du management.

Dans ce contexte, les dirigeants doivent parvenir à résumer l’intention stratégique de leur organisation d’une manière qui suscite l’adhésion, en clarifiant trois composantes :

La mission de l’entreprise, qui est l’affirmation de son intention fondamentale et de sa raison d’être. Elle répond à la question « quel est notre métier ? » ou encore « Quelle est notre différence ? »,

La vision d’une organisation, qui décrit ce qu’elle aspire à devenir. Elle est une image du futur capable d’impliquer et de motiver. Elle répond à la question « si nous étions ici dans 20 ans, que serions-nous fiers d’avoir accomplis ? », 

Les valeurs fondamentales, qui sont les principes qui sous-tendent la stratégie d’une organisation et définissent de quelle manière elle devrait agir, et constituent une sorte de code génétique de l'entreprise.

Cette intention stratégique, qui a pour but de créer une importante inadéquation entre ressources et aspirations et de fixer un cap (orientation), doit également proposer aux collaborateurs une vision originale sur l’avenir de l’entreprise ou du secteur en intégrant l’exploration de territoires nouveaux (exploration), et enfin représenter une charge affective forte en ayant le caractère d’un avenir porteur de sens (destin).

2. L’utilité sociale

« C’est proprement ne valoir rien que de n’être utile à personne », René Descartes, Discours de la Méthode, 1637

Le travail le plus complet en matière de définition de « l’utilité sociale » est celui de Jean Gadrey, en 2003, à partir de la synthèse d’une quarantaine de rapports :  « Est d’utilité sociale l’activité d’une organisation qui a pour résultat constatable et, en général, pour objectif explicite, au-delà d’autres objectifs éventuels de production de biens et de services destinés à des usagers individuels, de contribuer à la cohésion sociale (notamment par la réduction des inégalités), à la solidarité (nationale, internationale, ou locale : le lien social de proximité), à la sociabilité, et à l’amélioration des conditions collectives du développement humain durable (dont font partie l’éducation, la santé, l’environnement et la démocratie)».

Mais avant même de produire de l’utilité sociale, domaine traditionnellement réservé à des associations et autres entreprises du secteur de l’Economie Sociale et Solidaire ou de la sphère publique, les entreprises du secteur privé devraient s’efforcer a minima d’éradiquer ou de limiter la création d’inutilité sociale. 

L’inutilité est une forme grave d’inégalités, car elle enferme « dans des trappes dont il est difficile de sortir(2) » tous ceux qui ne vivent pas de leur travail, comme les chômeurs ou les précaires qui enchaînent les petits boulots, sans perspective d’améliorer leur situation. Personne n’est inutile en soi, mais peut le devenir aux yeux des autres ou à ses propres yeux, en raison du sort qui lui est fait dans une société donnée. 

En ce sens, l’inutilité sociale s’analyse aussi comme la privation, pour les hommes placés en situation d’inutilité, d’une capacité élémentaire au sens de Sen, celle de progresser et d’améliorer son sort. Il faut rappeler les statistiques de pôle emploi selon lesquelles la probabilité de trouver un travail après 12 mois de chômage est de 3% ou encore la difficulté à sortir de la pauvreté en moins de quelques générations.

A défaut de s’engager dans la promotion de l’utilité sociale, les entreprises devraient donc commencer par s’interroger sur leur responsabilité dans la création d’hommes « inutiles » et viser comme premier objectif l’éradication de toute création d’inutilité sociale ou externalités négatives dans ce domaine. Il est de ce point de vue instructif de voir de grands groupes licencier à tour de bras et communiquer massivement dans le même temps sur leur responsabilité sociétale.

3. Le temps long

« Plus la glace est mince plus il faut patiner vite » Ralph Waldo Emerson, On Prudence, 1862

Le sociologue Hartmunt Rosa a bien montré dans son essai « Aliénation et accélération »(3) que notre modernité tardive se caractérisait par une accélération des rythmes de vie, des techniques et du changement social, qui est une source d’aliénation et d’épuisement pour les individus.

Cette accélération subie pour rester dans la course viole en effet la promesse de réflexivité et d’autonomie qui est au cœur de la modernité, puisqu’il n’y a plus aucune remise en cause ou débat possible autour du délai imposé et de l’impératif de la nécessité de toujours accélérer pour se maintenir.

Ce qui est vrai pour les individus est vrai pour les entreprises, qui craignent de perdre une position concurrentielle chèrement acquise, faute de ne pas être assez « agile » ou assez « digitale », ou encore de ne pas « pivoter » assez vite.

En corolaire de ce primat de la vitesse et du « sprint » permanent, on observe un mépris croissant pour le temps long et la stratégie en particulier, définie comme un processus d’allocation des ressources à moyen terme devenue inutile, compte tenu « du degré d’incertitude que nous vivons, qui appelle des réponses immédiates ». Pour certaines entreprises, l’agitation permanente et l’improvisation sont érigées en vertus cardinales.

On peut émettre l’hypothèse que cette accélération/aliénation est pour partie à l’origine du désengagement des collaborateurs, puisque « rien ne dure », et rend difficile dans certaines entreprises la conception et la mise en œuvre de « projets d’utilité sociale », qui en général, réclament un investissement au long cours. 

A titre d’illustration, on peut évoquer la mise en place de dispositifs de type « zéro chômeur de longue durée » dans les territoires ou encore les projets de réduction des empreintes carbone des entreprises par la plantation massive d’arbres par exemple. Il est clair que les résultats tangibles de ce type de projets requièrent le temps long. 

L’investissement dans le capital humain et le développement de nouvelles compétences, ou encore le développement de nouvelles capacités stratégiques, et même les grands chantiers de transformation, participent également de ce temps long.

Les trois valeurs décrites ci-dessus se renforcent donc l’une l’autre et forment un triptyque vertueux - engagement, utilité sociale et temps long – que les entreprises devraient promouvoir davantage.

Cyril Chapelle, MBA INSEAD 99D Principal, BNP Paribas Consulting

Références :

(1) G.Hamel, C.K. Prahalad : « La conquête du futur », Dunod, 1995 (2) Pierre-Noël Giraud : « l’homme inutile », Odile Jacob, 2015 (3) Harmundt Rosa : « Aliénation et Accélération », La Découverte, 2010

[fuoridicinema]

Gli invisibili. Cosa vedere al cinema dal 27 settembre

Gli invisibili. Cosa vedere al cinema dal 27 settembre

Cosa vedere al cinema questo week end? Come ogni settimana arriva la nostra rubrica di cinema poco visibile. Vi segnaliamo e consigliamo i film in sala con una bassa distribuzione, le pellicole poco pubblicizzate che meriterebbero di essere conosciute. Correte a cercarli nella vostra città prima che vengano tolti, oppure se non li trovate, segnateveli per recuperarli in futuro.

 La Casa dei Libri

[thefrencknews]

Les Diffusions de 2020

Bonne année à tous et Bienvenue sur ce Tumblr ! Trois rendez-vous sont à prévoir en cette nouvelle année.  Au premier trimestre, nous aurons tout d’abord la troisième saison des Bracelets Rouges, dans laquelle Elodie devrait revenir dans son rôle d’Agathe, la kinésithérapeute de Medhi, comme elle l’a annoncé à Allo Ciné en Septembre dernier. (http://www.allocine.fr/article/fichearticle_gen_carticle=18684217.html) Nous avons ensuite Meurtres à Pont-l’Evêque tourné en fin d’année 2019, prévu pour être diffusé au 2ème semestre de l’année. Elodie y joue Marion Letellier, source de la rivalité des deux personnages principaux, joué par Arnaud Binard et Antoine Hamel. (http://www.nilaya.fr/production/meurtres-a-pont-leveque/)

Enfin, nous aurons également le plaisir de retrouver une dernière fois Marlène sur les écrans français en Septembre pour l’ultime épisode de la saison 2 des Petits Meurtres d’Agatha Christie : Un Cadavre au Petit Déjeuner. Gageons que nous aurons des behind the scenes des répétitions des danses et l’enregistrement des chansons ! 

[troybeecham]

The Church remembers Père Jacques Hamel, Priest and Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

Jacques Hamel (30 November 1930 – 26 July 2016 A.D.) was a French Catholic priest in the parish of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray. On 26 July 2016, Hamel was murdered by two Muslim men who stormed into his church during the Divine Liturgy, shouting out their allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and then cut his throat while he celebrated Mass in his church. During the attack, Hamel said “Satan, go!” when confronted by his killers.

Hamel was born on 30 November 1930 in Darnétal, France. At the age of six he became a choirboy in St. Paul’s Church in Rouen and at 14 he entered the minor seminary. He served in the military for 18 months in Algeria. He did not wish to be an officer as he did not want to issue orders to other men to kill.

Hamel was ordained as a priest on 30 June 1958. He served as a vicar at the St. Antoine church in Le Petit-Quevilly from 1958, a vicar at the Notre-Dame de Lourdes church in Sotteville-lès-Rouen from 1967, a parish priest in Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf from 1975, and a parish priest in Cléon from 1988. He joined the church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in 2000.

He officially retired at the age of 75, but was allowed to keep serving in the parish. As a result, he assumed his role as the parish’s assistant priest from 2005 to his death.

With local imam Mohammed Karabila, the president of Normandy’s regional council of Muslims, Hamel worked since early 2015 on an interfaith committee. After Hamel’s death, Karabila described him as his friend with whom he had discussed religion and as also someone who gave his life for others.

The circumstances of his death have led him to be called a martyr by Christians, including Pope Francis, by non-Christians, and even the French press. Calls to make him a saint started soon after his death. The canonization cause was officially opened at diocesan level in April 2017, after Pope Francis had waived the otherwise mandatory five-year waiting period for the opening of such causes.

Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Jacques triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Porter Fatally Stabbed,” Toronto Globe. September 2, 1919. Page 20. --- His Bedfellow Said to Have Admitted Knifing Him. --- (Canadian Press Despatch.) Montreal, Sept. 1. - Stabbed through the heart, Alfred Pope, aged twenty-four, a colored railroad porter, of 243 St. Antoine street, lies at the morgue, while Michael Murray, aged thirty-three, also a colored porter, and of the same address, is at detective headquarters charged with murder. At 4 o’clock this morning Pope staggered into the room of his landlady, Ida Paris, with blood pouring from his chest.  The police were called, and Murray was taken in charge by Detectives Walsh and Savard, to whom he admitted knifing Pope, with whom he slept. Charles Smith and Hamel Pall, roomers, at the house, which is known as the Porter’s Club, were taken to headquarters as witnesses.

[retegenova]

Mio figlio

Cinema: Mio figlio

Un mistero sempre più minaccioso

(mymonetro: 2,50)

Regia di Christian Carion.

Con Guillaume Canet, Mélanie Laurent, Olivier de Benoist, Antoine Hamel, Mohamed Brikat, Lino Papa, Christophe Rossignon, Pierre Desmaret. Genere Thriller

– Francia, Belgio,

2017. Durata 84 minuti circa.

Julien e Marie hanno divorziato da qualche tempo, e in questo pesa il fatto che…

[public-new-yahoopartner-blog]

Audiences TV : Grosse déception pour Harry Potter sur TF1 terrassé par Planète animale

La soirée de la Saint-Valentin a réservé quelques petites surprises. Pour ceux qui avaient décidé de rester devant le petit écran, vous avez été nombreux a plébiscité un programme inattendu.Contre toute attente, c'est bien France 2 qui a pris la tête la tête grâce son documentaire Planète animale. Environ 4,4 millions de téléspectateurs soit 17.7% du public. ont été bercés par des images inédites de la vie animale sur Terre. Pour un chef d'oeuvre comme #PlaneteAnimale >> 89 pers à la réa avec biorobots & drones, 2089 journées de tournage sur 3 ans dans 40 pays. — Marcus D. Besnard (@Marcus_DB) 14 février 2017 La narration de François Morel sur fond de bande originale composée par Hans Zimmer a sûrement fait la différence. En deuxième position, on retrouve France 3 qui diffusait la saison 2 de La Stagiaire avec Michèle Bernier. La série a séduit presque 3,6 millions de téléspectateurs soit 14,5% de parts de marché. Tout de suite : la saison 2 de #LaStagiaire commence avec @Bernier_Michele & Antoine Hamel ! pic.twitter.com/GqIbrnvfqg— France 3 (@France3tv) 14 février 2017 La grande déception de ce mardi 14 février vient de TF1 qui misait énormément avec la première partie d'Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort . Le dernier acte de la saga évènement n'a réuni que 3,1 millions de téléspectateurs soit 14,8% du public. Ce moment où Harry prend la peine de creuser une tombe à la main alors qu'il pourrait le faire d'un coup de magie, pour Dobby #HarryPotter— GUET (@MadajGaeta... Retrouvez cet article sur Public

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Vidéo : Élodie Frégé en 35 looks pour ses 35 ans !

[bluepointcoin]

Quarantined Quebecers in Peru hostel could be stuck there for months

When Antoine Pouliot-Hamel left Quebec City for Peru, he was looking forward to a three-week break. Now he could be stuck in the country for up to three months.

The Pariwana Hostel in Cusco, Peru, where Pouliot-Hamel is staying, is on lockdown following two guests testing positive for COVID-19, according to hostel management.

More than 100 travellers — including nine Canadians — have been told…